Katsucon 2014 pics as promised

So, I said I’d post some more Katsucon pics from last week, and here they are! There are a whole lot more on my portfolio site, if you want to see more. These are what I think are my best of the best, so enjoy!

[cryout-multi][cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column][cryout-column width=”1/3″]Crunchyroll subscriber[/cryout-column][/cryout-multi][cryout-multi][cryout-column width=”1/3″] [/cryout-column][cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column][cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column][/cryout-multi][cryout-multi][cryout-column width=”1/3″]
[/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column][cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column][/cryout-multi][cryout-multi][cryout-column width=”1/3″]Old school! [/cryout-column][cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column][/cryout-multi][cryout-multi][cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column][cryout-column width=”1/3″] [/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″] [/cryout-column] [/cryout-multi][cryout-multi][cryout-column width=”1/3″] [/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″] [/cryout-column] [/cryout-multi][cryout-multi][cryout-column width=”1/3″] [/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″] [/cryout-column] [/cryout-multi][cryout-multi][cryout-column width=”1/3″] [/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″][/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″] [/cryout-column] [/cryout-multi]

Coming soon: Katuscon 2014 pictures

katsu2014-02I’ve been remiss in updating that often, but last weekend I had an excuse: I was at Katsucon over in National Harbor, Maryland. The con this year was disrupted by the snowy weather, which lead to some guests delayed or unable to attend, and some of the panels were cancelled or re-scheduled as a result. Also, most people who had pre-registered, who would have gone Thursday night before the con to pick up their badges, most of them showed up late on Friday, and thus there was a line that lasted at least 3 hours in order to pick up con badges. I know because I was one of the thousands in that line, and that’s how long I stood there! That caused me to miss a couple of panels that I really wanted to see, but at least I got some pictures of cosplayers in the line!

As if to make up for the disruption from the weather, there were a lot of very imaginative (and timely!) cosplayers this year, and I have pictures of many of them. Of course, since there was a tremendous amount of snow on the ground, there was a plethora of cosplayers playing characters from the movie “Frozen.” So many Elsas and Anas, and even other winter-themed characters like “Jack Frost” from “Rise of the Guardians”. The largest number of cosplayers this year though had to be the “Attack on Titan” characters. This year there had to be more “AoT” characters percentage-wise than any other anime in other years, even counting “Bleach” and “Gurren Lagann”! (Sorry, “Homestuck” kids, you were FAR outnumbered this con!)

At any rate, I will be posting pictures here and on my photo site, at much higher quality than the ones I already posted on my Facebook page.

As an example, here’s a cosplayer who was taking photos herself (Click for a larger version):

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Imagine Dragons: “Radioactive” on SNL

Screen Shot 2014-02-08 at 12.29.54 PMI haven’t watch Saturday Night Live in many years, but recently I found a song called “Radioactive” by a group named “Imagine Dragons”, and stumbling around YouTube I found that they performed the song with a rapper named Kendrick Lamar on SNL just a few days ago. This is a powerful song, and the live rendition they gave on SNL is one of the most energetic of performances I’ve seen of any band. I don’t really like rap, but Lamar’s soliloquy definitely boosted the energy of the rest of the performers, and the audience was fully engaged, as you can tell by the applause at the end.

I’ll have to listen to more of their music, to get a feel for what else they’ve done, and I also want to find the lyrics, but at least this is a good song to get the heart racing and adrenalin pumping.

Addendum: According to an entry in “Songfacts”, the lead singer “struggled most of his life with depression and ADD and anxiety issues. He explained to AbsolutePunk that he penned this song ‘coming out of a pretty serious spell of depression and having a new awakening and a real vigor for life.’ He added: ‘That’s the general thing where that song came from. There’s more specifics to it, but that’s the basic, general idea.'”

Enjoy!

Beautiful, terrifying free-fall videos…

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From two years ago, when Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a perfectly good, pressurized capsule at 24 miles up, and free-fell to Earth to test a pressure suit and make history as part of the Red Bull promotion, “Red Bull Stratos.” This is a compilation of videos taken from the GoPro cameras attached at various places on his suit, and just released on YouTube. Personally, I have great admiration for him, and for his predecessor, Joe Kittinger, who made a similar jump back in the 1950’s. I also would never in all of my remaining life ever do what those men did, it isn’t even on my “bucket list”! My severe acrophobia wouldn’t let me even climb the ladder to get into the capsule, much less allow me to ride it up 24 miles!

This video compilation takes various views of Baumgartner’s jump, from his chest, legs, and from the outside of the capsule. GoPro cameras are amazing in how fantastically well they capture hi-definition video, and how rugged they are, and this video is definitely a beautiful, terrifying addition to their library. The addition of the ground-to-air conversation added to the excitement, especially when Baumbgartner went into a high-speed spin during part of the descent.

Well, enough talk, here is the video, please enjoy (and if you feel sick while watching, don’t worry, I think a lot of people will, too!)